How to Save a Life
by InfinityOrNone
Summary: After a brutal beating, Naruto decides to become a Med-Nin. While he's saving lives, the mysteries of Akatsuki grow ever darker to cope with him as an actual threat. Naruhina, Sasusaku. Smart!Naruto. Non-teme!Sasuke. Non-fangirl!Sakura. M for swearing.


**Hello!!! I've finally got this fic out after saying I'd get it out months ago! I'm honestly sorry it took so long, but music is my inspiration and it takes a while to find the perfect song to 'click' with each story, and even then the song can last anywhere from the entire chapter to a few sentences. Anyways, this fic will have NO BASHING WHATSOEVER!!! Except for Kankuro. I hate Kankuro. Anyways, the main pairings will be NaruHina and SasuSaku. That said, if anyone knows a story that I could read that could help me out with the interaction between the two and actual romance in general? I'm a 15 year old antisocial male with the emotional range of a rock. Romance and I don't click very well, but I'm going to need it for some stories I'm writing. Anyways, I warn you, DO NOT FLAME!!! Any and all flamers I hear of go straight to the Hall of Shame on my profile. And, if you could help me out with the thing posted on my profile page, I'd appreciate it. Amyways, I got the idea for this fic while watching my little sister kick her friend's ass as Shizune vs. Kabuto on my Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 game.**

**Disclaimer: If you think I own Naruto then I'll just call the nice men in clean white suits to bring you your nice warm jacket with really long sleeves.**

**UPDATE: If you're reading this, then this is the updated version. That means I decided to give in and remove my little nonimportant quips from the middle of the story. This isn't because you guy's convinced me but because this story I'm trying to make different than my others. Um... What's left to say? Oh, I got it! The new movie _Ponyo_ comes out soon. I plan to see it myself. Miyazaki may do no wrong. DO NO WRONG!!!**

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Today we find our hero, young Uzumaki Naruto, in a bed. This is a rather normal place to find a person as the average person spends 1/3 of their life sleeping. The thing that makes Naruto different in this is that he's in a hospital bed, recovering from the beating he received the previous night.

"How is he?" asked Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage, to a medic Nin.

"Well, he received large-scale blunt force trauma due to the assault on him via pipes and 2X4s alongside ring-shaped stab wounds that were likely caused by broken bottles, and as well he suffered a stab wounds in the face and chest from what looks to be a titanium spork," said the med nin.

Naturally, Naruto woke up right then, only to begin screaming and writhing in agony. "Naruto-kun!" cried the Hokage.

"A wound on his chest opened. I'll fix it," said the med-nin, his hand glowing with mint-green chakra as it was placed over the spork-wound, as the wound healed.

"Wh-who are you? And how did you make the bleeding stop?" asked 5-year-old Naruto.

"My name is Osamaru and I'm a Medic ninja. It's our job to heal people," said Osamaru. "Y-you mean you can stop people from hurting and dying?" asked Naruto, the gears in his head finally turning for the first time in their existence.

"Yes, although medic Nin can do so much more than just heal people. We're faster than others, we can fix our own wounds, and we can attack where they can't stop you and can disable an enemy easier. We're quite possibly the most useful of ninja in the world," said Osamaru, his ego showing through.

"Ojiji, can I learn to be a medic-nin?" asked Naruto to the Hokage.

"Naruto-kun, I thought you wanted to be the Hokage, not a healer," said the aged kage, perplexed, his paperwork addled brain forgetting about something important.

"What good is being able to protect people if you can't help them when they get hurt?" asked Naruto, his mind racing along a chain of thought that would hopefully allow him to be wearing his favorite person's hat soon.

"I have to agree with young Naruto-chan. And besides, isn't your student Tsunade-sama a healer?" asked/said Osamaru.

"Well then Naruto, I'll let you study with my top two med-nin after you get out of the academy in the afternoon every day. How does that sound?" asked the Sarutobi clan leader.

"It sounds good to me!" said Naruto.

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It had been 8 years sense Naruto had started along the path of the medic. At this point, Naruto was no longer the retard shouting about how he's going to be Hokage while still being unable to perform a bunshin no jutsu. By now, Naruto was classified as a field medic ninja, assault class. This meant that he could be placed in a ninja vs. ninja combat situation where it was likely he would have to fight himself. He was also well versed in chakra theory, control, and human anatomy and accuracy. At the moment, if he wanted to he could take a field exam and become a Chunin. The only thing standing between him and glory was his greatest nemesis. The academy. In his infinite wisdom, the Hokage had told Naruto that he had to take the Genin exam alongside his peers. This is, naturally, ignoring the fact that he hadn't been in the halls of the academy for 5 years, ever sense he had completed his medic exam. And so, this is why we find young Naruto waiting to be let into the room. But this Naruto is far different in not just mind from the idiot we see in the manga/anime. He had swapped the 'Kill-me-I'm-an-idiot' orange jumpsuits for blue shinobi pants, and a blue-ish shirt, topped with a green cloth vest, almost like a Chunin vest but obviously not. He was wearing black leather forearm guards and, to finish off the look, a white duster/trench coat with blue-black flames with green tips licking at the bottom of it. He also grew his hair out. He looked like a literal clone of the man who, although he didn't know it yet, was his father… But with whiskers.

"Class. Class! PIPE DOWN!" said Iruka, using his patented "Kyotou no Jutsu" to silence them. (In this case, I'm using Kyotou to mean 'big head' instead of its other uses.)

"What is it Iruka-sensei?" asked a slightly shy pink-haired girl, whose name happened to be Sakura. (The only reason she had the courage to pursue Sasuke was because of the confidence boost caused by Naruto. If my calculations are correct, Naruto left long before that.)

"We're getting a new student class!" said Iruka, a smile on his face.

"WHAT?!? But it's only a week till the Genin Exams! Why should we have to suffer through the entire year while he gets to just jump in and take the stupid test?" shouted Kiba.

"It's because he's been studying a lesser taken path to become a strong shinobi. But he was originally in the academy before that. His name is Uzumaki Naruto. Come in and introduce yourself, Naruto," explained Iruka.

And in walked Naruto. This caused a stir in 3 specific students in the room. Hinata was shocked because the boy she had a secret crush on sense she was 6 when she entered the academy had returned. Kiba was pissed because someone had not only managed to avoid all the lectures that Iruka had given, but also made a damn awesome intro. And to top it off, he looked like the legendary Kiiroi Senkou no Konoha! But most surprising of all was the last person who recognized Naruto.

_Flashback!_

It all started about 4 years ago. The day his life was shot down the drain. He had just come home from class so it was rather late at the time. In fact, it was almost dark. And then he smelled it. Blood! And it was coming from his home! As he ran, he noticed all the corpses. All the bodies! Each was a person he knew and, in their own way, a friend to him. Upon entering his home, he saw what was going on. (If you haven't guessed what's going on, I'll give you a minute to try to figure it out.

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And here we are!) Like an angel of death, his brother, the man he looked up to more than anything, was standing over the rapidly cooling bodies of his parents.

"Itachi! Why! Why did you kill our clan!?!" asked/shouted/begged Sasuke.

"To test myself. And you? You're not even worth killing. To prove yourself, you must hate me. Live your pathetic life and do not let anyone close…" look, we've all heard this speech a trillion times before and it's kind of long and boring to have to actually type, so I'm just going to skip ahead to the part that matters.

_Time skip! Five minutes that feel like they've dragged on for an hour!_

"That's it, little brother. Run. Run and cling to your pathetic life," said Itachi calmly as he Shunshin-ed out of the complex to begin his escape from the village he just saved.

"Help! Someone! Help my family! Please!" cried/shouted Sasuke, tears streaming down his face blurring his vision to impossible levels.

"What happened?" asked a light voice, filled with concern.

"My brother! He just killed them! All of them!" cried Sasuke, falling to his knees.

"Quick! Show me. I'm a medic, I might be able to help," said the voice, filled with urgency. And so, Sasuke dragged him through the Uchiha district, while the voice dismissed all it saw as lost until he made it to his house.

"She's got a pulse! Sasuke, take this flare and fire it into the sky the moment you get outside," said the voice, "I'll try to keep her stable while the med-corps get here."

By the end of the night, the voice, who had been revealed to be that a young blond haired child had saved not just one life, but two. That of Mikoto Uchiha and her unborn child.

_Un-flashback!_

"You!" shouted Sasuke, pointing at Naruto after jumping out of his seat.

"Go get 'em, Sasuke! Kick his ass for showing you up by looking like Yondaime-sama!" shouted a whore-like blond fangirl by the name of Ino.

"Quiet you! Naruto-sama, I am forever in your debt for what you did for me and my family all those years ago," said Sasuke, bowing on his knees with his forehead touching the floor. This left the class stunned. The class's resident arrogant jackass had just _bowed_ to some random stranger. Whoever he was, he had just jumped to the top of the totem pole.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, I was just doing my job that night. It was nothing," said Naruto, blushing from the praise. _'I'm the most awesome person in the world! Take THAT, Ero-Jiji!'_

"How can you be so nonchalant about this? If you hadn't found me on the night of the massacre, then Kaa-san and Haruka-nee-chan wouldn't be here!" shouted Sasuke, stunning the class. They had heard the tale about how the entire Uchiha clan was attacked by Sasuke's brother, and how the actions of a lone medic had saved the life of Sasuke's little sister and mother, but when Sasuke said he was young, they expected a 15-year-old at the time, not someone their own age!

"I took an oath to heal all I may and to do no harm, and I was only doing that. Then again, I was later assigned to be your little sisters doctor," said Naruto while walking to an empty desk at the left hand corner of the room with a slightly impish grin at the thought of getting that little ball of sunshine-under-a-magnifying-glass back for stabbing him with a needle after he gave 'er her latest shots.

"Sorry I'm late Iruka I was…" started a silver haired Chunin as he walked into the room, before he saw the figure in the corner of the room. '_Yondaime-sama? No, it's the Kyuubi brat!'_ thought Mizuki.

"Ah, good, you're finally here. Now let's begin today's lessons!" said Iruka.

Thus started the Week of Hell.

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By the time we see Naruto again, a week had passed. In it he'd made a few friends, but not many. He'd bonded over a game of Go with a pineapple haired youth by the name of Shikamaru, made allies with Shino over the poison-filtering abilities of bugs, and gotten Sasuke to act like a human being.

But that was then and this is now, where we look on in the academy room as we see the teams about to be called by Iruka, as Mizuki had been caught by ANBU for trying to steal the Forbidden Scroll. "Now for team 7, we have Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hyuuga Hinata. Now for team 8, we have…" Now as you can guess, I just switched Hinata and Sakura, who in this fic is not a whore. This means no change to team 10.

_Timeskip! Two Hours!_

"Where IS this guy? Jonin are supposed to be the best of the best, and how could the best of the best not know how to use a clock?" asked an irritated Sasuke.

"M-maybe he's l-late?" suggested Hinata.

"Na, 5000 ryo says our sensei's just the worlds latest teme, Kakashi-baka," said Naruto, who was reading from a book, with lots of really big words, while standing… on his head… on the ceiling… what I'm trying to communicate here is that he was he was suspended only by the top of his head, which kind of freaked his teammates out.

"Sucker bet!" responded Sasuke.

"Fine, I'll just have to entertain myself the old fashion way," said Naruto, who fell to the floor and grabbed his back-pack.

_Ten minutes later!_

Hatake Kakashi was happy. No, the latest edition of his favorite porn novel wasn't out. The reason for his happiness was because today he learned he'd be teaching the heir to the Hyuuga clan, Obito's cousin once removed, alongside the son of his sensei/the adopted child of his best friend… And he found a penny on the floor! Unfortunately, he accidentally hit a small wire on the floor, causing a hail of senbon to fall from hundreds of small holes in the roof. Luckily, he managed to block a nice amount of them forming a senbon free circle around him… until he noticed that the senbon had wires attached to _them_ too, and he'd broken the wires on the ones he blocked and because of the other wires, he couldn't move, as traditionally, they're electrified. This was proven wrong as several metal spheres were launched at him, ripping through the wires and leaving no sparks. He managed to dodge them all, although one almost hit 'Mr. Happy', but this turned out to be the wrong thing to do, as this caused the balls to hit a set of pressure pads that launched a set of five Fuuma Shuriken at him, but he managed to dodge them all… only for another set of them to tie him to the roof, via a rope, with chakra channeling wire. (Imagine chakra is like electricity and so that just grounded him) This alone would turn it to a bad day, but then he heard a bell ring and a small trap door dropped several club-like sticks and a senbon hit him in the gut. This senbon had a note on it that said '_hit me till candy falls out'_ which didn't make much sense… till the first years ran into the hallway.

_38 minutes later._

Finally a beaten, bruised, and humiliated Hatake Kakashi walked into the classroom and immediately noticed that all three of his students were laughing while looking at a set of photographs depicting his torture. He only needed to say one thing to the group to command their respect.

"I. Hate. You. All. So. VERY. Much. Welcome to Hell, little Genin, your asses are MINE now!" shouted Kakashi, while this totally random bolt of lightning lit up the sky, casting an ominous shadow on his face, "Meet me on the roof," he said, before Shunshin-ing away.

"Don't worry, I still got the negatives," said Naruto.

Ok, maybe not so much 'command respect' as 'challenge them to make his life Hell.'

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"Alright, state your name, and introduce yourself," said Kakashi, who'd calmed down thanks to his porn. (Not like that.)

"Why don't you start first, Kakashi-ero-baka-sensei?" said a smirking Naruto.

"Alright. My name is Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes aren't really important and my hobbies are reading. As for my goal for the future? I don't really have one," said the white-haired man, "Now your turn, Blacky."

Sasuke, who was slightly annoyed at his nickname along with the fact he learned almost nothing about his sensei, said, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. My likes are training, my family, and getting stronger. My dislikes are traitors and murderers. My hobbies are nonexistent and my goal is to help revive the Uchiha clan… and figure out why he really did it," he finished cryptically.

"Now you, white eyes," said Kakashi.

"Oh, um, my n-name's Hyuuga Hinata. I like p-pressing flowers. I-I dislike the clan s-seal. My d-dream is to fix my c-clan and be a good l-leader," the shy mouse of a girl said, before apparently trying to shift the attention away from her.

"And I guess that means I'm next. My name's Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage and class B med Nin! I like ramen, gardening, training, and pranks! (Kakashi DEFINITELY knows that by now.) I dislike the time it takes for ramen to cook and the time it takes to get bloodstains out of my clothes. My dream is to be the world's best medic and Hokage!" shouted Naruto.

"O…K? Anyways, before you're able to become Genin, you have to take a bit of a test," said Kakashi, eye smiling.

"We already took a test to become ninja and now we get _another one?_" asked Sasuke.

"Kaa-san said we'd have to do one to see if we're ready to actually BE ninja, while the first one was to see if we were strong enough to be ninja," said Naruto.

"Very good, Naruto! That said, our test is going to begin tomorrow at 5:00 sharp, so get a good night's sleep! Oh, and don't eat breakfast tomorrow, or you'll puke," said Kakashi, before poof-ing away.

"Hey, before you all go, my mom told me to invite my Gennin team over for dinner tonight," said Sasuke while looking away from the other two.

"I-I'll come if tou-san lets me," said Hinata before running off.

"I'd love to. I just got to clear it with my kaa-san," said Naruto before vanishing in a blip of green light.

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"Kaa-san, tou-san, I'm home!" shouted Naruto after entering the house. He was answered when his mom entered. Over the years of learning to be a med-Nin, he'd bonded with quite a few of the staff members, but in particular the married couple of Rin and Osamaru. This naturally led to his eventual adoption by the pair, who, due to lacking a last name of their own, took on Uzumaki as their own.

"Welcome back Sochi! How'd today go?" asked Rin, smiling.

"Today went great, dattebyo! I got Kakashi-baka as my sensei," said Naruto.

"The photos?" she asked mischievously, before Naruto passed a few over to her, causing them both to roar with laughter before Naruto calmed down enough to ask her a question.

"Oh, kaa-san, One of my teammates asked me over for a team get-together. Can I go?" asked Naruto.

"Who are your teammates?" asked Rin.

"Hyuga Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke," he said.

"You can go, but only as a teammate and not a doctor, got that?" said Rin sternly.

"Medical code rule #149: a Med-nin is neither allowed to extort his patients nor accept gifts or donations from said patients. I know the rules mom," said Naruto, pouting slightly.

"Good. Just be sure to be back by 21:00," she said, before Naruto ran off and vanished in a blip of green light right after getting through the door.

"Just like sensei was. I know you've made him proud, Naruto," said Rin, a tear in her eye as she looked to the stone head of Namikaze Minato, which she could have sworn was smiling if that wasn't impossible. But in a village of people like her and Naruto, anything was possible.


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